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business and craft of movie screenplays and screenwriting from a European
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Monday, July 25, 2005

The Oscar Moore prize is shaping up as one of Europe's most interesting scriptwriting contests. Organised by industry mag Screen International, this year's winner was Marcus Sherpherd's "A Killing in the Woods", singled out by the jury as "a powerful, simple story told with clarity and terrific tension, which avoids English clichés and stylistic tricksiness." If that whets your curiosity and you are in London this Wednesday contact Script Factory, as they are organising a reading of the script together with Bafta. So you get to hear what an award-winning script has to offer while it's still a script (and networking with Bafta and other writers is always interesting).

Venue: BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London W1 at 6.30pm on Wednesday 27 July. Entrance is free, but you must absolutely reserve by contacting josh@scriptfactory.co.uk.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

One of the most promising new festivals in Europe must be Poland's "Era Nowe Horyzonty/Era New Horizons" that has just kicked off on the Polish/Czech border. Over ten days, it will show some 300 largely European films. I quote: "The most important part of the festival is the competition. This section includes 18 innovative, visionary films trying to push the boundaries of conventional cinema and redefine the language of film-making. The films in competition, screened for the first time in Poland, are rated by the festival’s audience and one of them is awarded the Grand Prix. Eléonore Faucher's "Brodeuses" won the Grand Prix at 2004 Festival."

Other events include a Rainer Werner Fasssbinder retrospective, the Moviemiento short film programme and a masterclass from Andrzej Wajda.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

If you feel like brushing up on some skills over the holidays in the UK, ScriptWriter Magazine has two masterclasses planned over the coming weeks: "The Thriller Genre" by Nic Ransome on July 23 and "Inventing Stories and Treatments" with Julian Friedmann on July 30. Both are to be held at the RADA in London.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

In a blitz that echoes that of Fatih Akin's "Head On" last year, Dani Levy's decidedly non-PC Jewish comedy "Go For Zucker! (Alles Auf Zucker)" picked up an armful of awards at this year's German Film Awards in Berlin's Philharmonie, held on July 8. The six Golden Lolas were for Best Film, Best Direction, Best Lead Actor (Henry Huebchen), Best Costume Design (Lucie Bates), Best Score (Niki Reiser) and last but not least Best Screenplay (Holger Franke and Dani Levy).

The film was produced by the "creative pool" X-filme, best known as the creators of "Goodbye Lenin" and "Run, Lola Run". Other winners on the night include "The Edukators" and "Sophie Scholl - The Final Days".

Sunday, July 03, 2005

"In a relationship, you first get to know each other, and then trust and the desire to do something together begins to grow." Production house Chroma has started an initiative with a view to making these first steps in the long-term writer-producer relationship, the first of its kind in Belgium." Producer Nathan Zylbersztejn is actively looking for scripts for a short film. Rather than running a competition, they will select two stories that will then receive a comprehensive workover under the eye of Dominique Lohlé during a workshop in November. Given the chronic need for script development in Europe, this sounds like a good idea. Two films will then be made, with the specialised distribution house La Big Family handling sales. Deadline for submissions is August 30.